Ifugao Organic Rice: Healthy and Responsible Consumerism

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A significant number of farmers all over the Philippines are now busy shifting to organic farming after pilot farms have demonstrated that organic farming has not, contrary to the previously circulated propaganda, lowered the farm yield. 

MANILA, Philippines - It is not true that only the cultivation of hybrid rice would enrich farmers.                  

This claim is false, organic farmers had argued, as they revealed that the harvest of traditional varieties cultivated without using chemical-based fertilizers and agricultural inputs has increased.

Farmers from Bulacan, Bataan and Pangasinan who have shunned the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the last five years reported increases from 20 percent to 142 percent.

They also said production costs have slid tremendously since they no longer buy petroleum-based inputs that hybrid rice seeds need in bigger volumes.

Roland Cabigas, executive director of La Liga Policy Institute (LLPI), which is promoting this type of farming in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), said natural agriculture is creating its own market, citing strong demand for organic vegetables and rice by such hotels as the Manila Peninsula and restaurants like Cravings.

Lawyer Efren Moncupa, spokesman of Go Organic! Philippines and head of the Malasimbu Agricultural Cooperative in Dinalupihan, Bataan, said he has been helping farmers shift to organic agriculture and use animal manure, carbonized rice hull and other waste as organic fertilizer.

More Dinalupihan farmers are now junking conventional farming as they reap more palay from their farms now.

Another firm believer in organic farming is Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, a former secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), who launched the campaign in 2004 and won over hundreds of farmers to his cause, with some of them reporting up to 142 percent increases in harvests in farms that started with balanced fertilization (with half of the farm using conventional methods and the other half purely organic) and later on went completely organic.

Farmer-leader Jaime Tadeo, who leads Paragos, an alliance of peasants, reported that his 1,000 sq m rice farm in Plaridel, Bulacan registered considerable increases in yield since he junked petroleum-based fertilizers and chemical inputs more than five years ago.

On the average, his rice yield was higher than the 4.2 tons produced in neighboring farms using conventional methods.

Apart from raising his yield, Tadeo said his farm is now a haven for field crabs (talangka), spiders and mudfish, all of which were absent when he was still using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

Agapito Tugade, a farmer from Alaminos City in Pangasinan, revealed that while his first stab at organic rice farming saw the yield falling to 60 cavans per hectare, his yield the following year rose to 72.5 cavans, still less than the 80 cavan average during the time when he was still into chemical farming.

Tugade said the third year saw his output in the 7,000 sq m farm besting 80 cavans, and his income rose since he was no longer using expensive imported fertilizers and herbicides.

Jun Garde of PRRM also confirmed the success of the system for rice intensification (SRI) in organic farms that restored indigenous practices. From only 80 cavans, succeeding yields grew to a low of 130 cavans to 160 cavans per hectare. - GMANews.TV http://www.gmanews.tv/story/159931/Organic-farmers-deny-low-output-report-higher-rice-yields

The alarming Ph levels or acidification of our farmlands forces our farmers to make this crucial shift; but consumers have to catch up with this development to support our farmers and hold up our end in promoting sustainable farming. 

Our household has been consuming Ifugao organic white rice for the past couple of years.  

It sells for PhP 950.00 for a 25 kilo sack and at 42.50 per kilo.  It is whole grain white rice and is our personal contribution to the preservation of the Ifugao Rice Terraces.  (Although I will confess that I thought of shifting to it because my son is such a picky eater that absent his short list of favorites he may eat two plates of plain rice and nothing else.)

Instead of the heavier grained brown or red rice varieties, organic white Ifugao rice is aromatic and more visually appetizing especially for those long-used to consuming white grain rice.

It comes in a bag sealed with an authenticating seal because there have been fake bags that have recently circulated.  It’s sweet aroma is unmistakable, however, and to be safe, you should demand a sample handful of grain before purchasing a bag.

The advantages of shifting to organic rice, aside from its obvious long term health benefits is that it’s actually more economical.  A cooked batch of rice will stay fresh for as long as three days even without refrigeration and at room temperature.  On the morning of the third day it may even be cooked into fried rice and the grains still do not break up unlike the pesticide and chemical fertilizer treated hybrid varieties that decompose overnight and result in wastage.

The preservation of the Ifugao Rice Terraces is an urgent concern and commercial viability of its yield is crucial to the survival of this Eighth Wonder of the World.

It was built 2,000 years ago on the slopes of the towering mountains of Northern Luzon, Philippines by bare human hands. If place end to end, it would extend more than 22,500 kilometers, that is, 8 times longer than the Great Wall of China, or more than half of the earth’s circumference… the Banawe and other Ifugao rice terraces were built without forced labor, unlike the other Seven Wonders of the World, which employed slaves… There are places where they reach from an altitude of 2500 feet to one of 5000 feet, and many places where they extend from an altitude of 1500 feet to one of 4500 feet. Ifugaos must be highly commended for constructing the rice terraces, since they did not have surveying instruments and modern machinery at their disposal… the rice terraces have been producing rice for centuries, showing that the Ifugaos were able to maintain the fertility of the rice fields’ soils and even contain soil erosion.

The Ifugao’s irrigation system diverts water from rivers and streams, and channels these to the terraces through a series of dikes and pipes. The pipes can be bamboo of various diameters, which make sure only the right amount of water is channeled to the terraces, and that no soil erosion is caused by excessive water flow. At the upper point of most terraces are well-preserved rainforests, the primary source of water. So simple yet efficient is the irrigation system of the rice terrace.

For hundreds of years, Ifugaos have diverted stream water for irrigation up to five to six kilometers. Using the stream’s current and sheer manpower, they rolled stones and small boulders from mountaintops and formed these as rock walls to hold mountainsides and create rice terraces. Source: http://www.trifter.com/Asia-&-Pacific/Philippines/Ifugao-Rice-Terraces-The-8th-Wonder-of-the-World.112183

Our experience with organic rice consumption is that we consume a lesser amount for our nutritional requirements. I can only attribute this to the higher nutritional content of the rice so that we feel no urge to over-indulge or to snack in between meals (with the exception of my son whose eight and hungry every two hours but his shoe size is already the same as mine).

With this rice, every viand is sumptuously complemented but over-eating is surprisingly not a by-product.

The next item in the wish list would be government or non-government assistance to indigenous peoples of other areas such as Mindanao to propagate and render commercially viable, indigenous upland varieties of rice that the tribes have managed to preserve despite the popularization of fertilizer and pesticide dependent hybrids.  

Apart from assistance in the shift to organic farming for food security and to carve a niche in the world market, government should empower the farmers to do direct marketing of their farm produce by setting up electronic marketing tie-ups or e-marketing stations that farming cooperatives can run themselves to free themselves from price dictation and manipulation by middlemen who double as loan-sharks to make a killing at both sides of the market.

Land and farm produce now become the strongest commodity in the world market as recession in the First World leads to a panic-generating free fall in consumption of non-essential goods.  Foreigners will want to convert their liquid assets to land investments and the foreign purchase of real estate as a constitutional amendment should be re-evaluated in the context of the current global financial crises.